Archive for the 'Developmental economics' Category

Milton Friedman vs. Naomi Klein

Happy New Year! To start off the year right, let’s have a look at a mock-up of a debate between Naomi Klein, reporter-activist extraordinaire, and Milton Friedman, king of economic liberty (via Instapundit).
This video was put together by Devil’s Advocate at Copious Dissent, where you can find the others in this series.
This […]

Some Economic Perspective

Hat tip: Greg Mankiw

Sphere: Related Content

China: The temporary nature of what we know

In a little-noticed mid-summer announcement, the Asian Development Bank presented official survey results indicating China’s economy is smaller and poorer than established estimates say. The announcement cited the first authoritative measure of China’s size using purchasing power parity methods. The results tell us that when the World Bank announces its expected PPP data revisions later […]

The Ultimate Resource Returns

Starting this Friday, November 2nd, Free to Choose Media is continuing the work of its inspiration, Milton Friedman, of bringing the benefits of freedom to the people of this world, including its most remote corners. A new documentary, “The Ultimate Resource” which aired last Spring on HDNet is now coming to a wider audience through […]

The Subtle Oil Shock

It hasn’t been all that shocking. Why not? Greg Mankiw supplies a few possibilities. My favorites? Well let us start here:

In contrast to much rhetoric to the contrary, capitalism is the most powerful weapon to achieve energy efficiency we have.
He provides us with some things I am fond of, conjectures. So I will call this […]

National Security in the 21st Century

Megan McArdle asks the question, Should we cut our defense spending in half? And has a follow up post entitled “The best offense is a good defense?”
It is an interesting discussion in that our military has always been about projecting and protecting Americas national interests beyond our border. That is what the Navy […]

News Brief, U Can Tell I Had A Long Day Lulz Edition

Originally at The Conjecturer.
Defense & The War

Okay, now this is silly. Expecto Petraeus is not worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize. Our respect for taking on the hardest job in America (yes, deliberate phrasing), but not a Nobel.
RJ Hillhouse takes another step into the big time by posting on Danger Room. Go you!
“It is not […]

More evidence that Naomi Klein is a nit wit-Update- Links fixed!

Alan Greenspan allowed her to prove it of course, but she also is pretty much making things up in this attempt to slander Milton Friedman.
I say pretty much because she is showing little to no originality as this lie, and there is no other thing to call it, has been spread for many years. I […]

The Maestro speaks out

Alan Greenspan gives an interview at Democracy Now! There is both a link to the audio and a transcript at the link. Brave. The interview is given by Amy Goodman, who generally I find insipid. Her guest interviewer however is the the frankly ignorant Naomi Klein. I don’t mean she is merely wrong in her […]

News Brief, Techno Dracula Edition

Probably pirating em-pee-threes over at The Conjecturer.
Defense & The War

Well, the military realizes how fundamentally broken our relationship with the PMCs in Iraq has become, and are now pressuring the State Department to exercise some control or oversight over Blackwater. Some military officials are now comparing the Blackwater shootout, which resulted in 11 dead Iraqis, […]

News Brief, A.D.S.R.M.! Edition

Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
Defense & The War

This look at PMCs, from late August no less, is pretty close to my views. Recognizing the impracticality of removing all PMCs in the lack of any ability to regrow military capacity for at least a decade, we’re stuck with them. But some groups, such as Blackwater, have acquired […]

News Brief, Radio Cure Edition

Respecting all races and religions over at The Conjecturer.
Defense & The War

It turns out the U.S. repeatedly refused to investigate or handle any of the complaints about Blackwater allegedly murdering civilians. But don’t worry—there are clearly laws against murder, so we can rest assured the lack of convictions is evidence that no crimes have been […]

News Brief, Lover’s Spit Edition

Three kinds of busy over at The Conjecturer.
Good News
I was ambushed by the Anonymous Lobbyist of Wonkette fame, and asked a lot of questions about Central Asia for Jezebel, a sister publication in the Gawker blog family. The result? A creatively-edited and mildly schizophrenic interview about the issues surrounding the region. Neat!
Defense & The War

Yes, […]

News Brief, Wolverine Edition

Slowly going mad with exhaustion at The Conjecturer.
Defense & The War

Security is falling to pieces in Southern Iraq. Rather than taking it as evidence of the need for benevolent Western leadership over Iraqi affairs, I see it as evidence that we really can’t solve their problems for them.
Meanwhile, Iran continues to beat the drum that […]

Democrats Continue Porkapalooza

Gee, here I was thinking the Democrats were going to:
serve the people’s interests, not special interests
create balanced budgets
pay down our national debt
put an end to Republican business as usual
And that they were mighty concerned with the lack of spending on maintaining our crumbling infrastructure. So, what’s a Democratic Congress to do???
Why, spend […]

News Brief, Heinrich Maneuver Edition

Probably in a bad mood over at The Conjecturer.
Defense & The War

Those silly experts and their “numbers,” always undermining the troops. To wit: there is no discernible drop in violence in Iraq, and what little there was occurred between December and February—before the surge. What’s more, the way numbers are compiled and reported by Petraeus […]

News Brief, Some Loud Thunder Edition

At loggerheads over at The Conjecturer.
Defense & The War

The DoD has crossed its arms, pouted, and insisted the GAO report on Iraq is wrong. Meanwhile, living among the world of verifiable measures of progress is news that “the number of Iraqi corpses found dumped on street corners was higher in August than before the security […]

Capitalist Genes (Updated)

Is it possible that a proclivity for capitalism is genetic, and therefore hereditary? At first blush the idea seems preposterous. How can an idea be hereditary? And how can capitalism, which rewards innovation, risk-taking, and creativity, no matter who you are or where you come from be an inherited trait? Well […]

Asking The Wrong Question

“Is government the answer?”
That’s probably not a question unfamiliar to most readers of ASHC, and it’s not the “wrong question” referred to in the title. In fact, I routinely present my arguments with that question as the implied premise. Unfortunately, it’s not the question asked, either explicitly or implicitly, by those who set […]

Gratuitous left bashing

Tyler Cowen links to this review of his latest book:

This book review has introduced me to a new enemy, the economist Tyler Cowen…
“The critical economic problem is scarcity,” he says in his book. Like all other capitalist economist, Cowen is ideologically welded to this bad idea of lack and shortages as the key problem. However, […]

News Brief, The Devil’s Territory

Cross-posted at The Conjecturer
Defense & the War

My respect for Kilcullen continues to rise. I hope he can affect some sort of change in the Army. But, I won’t be surprised if he doesn’t. His thoughts on how our over-focus on states is what is leaving us behind are essential reading (though he is not by […]

Economists Who Didn’t Take “Econ 101″

Following a link from Insty to read about the latest misery in Zimbabwe, I encountered this jaw-dropping line:
Most economists say Mr Mugabe’s policies are to blame for ruining the economy.
Most economists? Most? Really? Praytell, who is holding themselves out as an economist and claiming that anything other than Mugabe’s policies have created […]

Aid vs Investment in Africa

Perhaps the old saying “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a life time” should be revised to include “invest in the man buying a fishing boat, and you feed and employ hundreds…”
Investment in Africa, the private kind, […]

News Brief, All the Trees of the Field Edition

Cross-posted at The Conjecturer.
Defense

There goes Bob Gates, recklessly fear-mongering and not supporting the troops again.
An example of the general malaise facing the military: the San Antonio-class amphibious ship, $840 million over budget and two years behind schedule, is still not completed… but the Navy wants nine of them anyway.
An example of the bureaucratic inefficiencies that […]

News Brief, Everything Is Everything Edition

Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
Defense

A look at the operations in Baquba, with entire blocks of booby-trapped houses wired to explode for the troops. These kinds of delays are just what happen in warfare. But it speaks to how the insurgents are once again switching tactics: is this a new scorched earth-type policy?
Related to this is David […]

News Brief, That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore Edition

Cross-posted at The Conjecturer.
Defense

Declassified documents reveal one of the CIA’s biggest fears during the Cold War was the illicit wiretapping of American citizens—precisely what has happened under Bush’s war rules. All for freedom!
An absolutely fascinating look at the insurgent media machine. It’s not as efficient or as effective as you’d think… yet remarkably, it still […]

News Brief, 6 Underground Edition

Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
Defense

(HT: the ever-excellent Bonnie Boyd) The way we treat the disabled veterans we create is our shame. What’s worse is, war supporters tend to write off these kinds of stories as “anti-Bush lefty shilling” or some such, while the left tends to see it as another way to twist the knife—the end […]

Trading Dependencies

Instapundit links to an article in Reason about how the increased production of ethanol is leading to higher prices for food.
I also think it could lead to increasing reliance by America on foreign grain. Which, as we saw with the pet food recall, could mean a riskier supply. You can poison grain, but […]

News Brief, Atoms for Peace Edition

Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
Defense

Air Force planes are being used to scour for IEDs. This is related to the Inside the Air Force piece I mentioned a few months ago, about the use of “show of force” operations to hopefully dissuade insurgents. Only, it seems now AF Gen. Keyes, who didn’t buy the F-22 for Iraq, […]

News Brief, I Worked Late Then Went to the Wilco Show Edition

Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
Defense

Follow up to the story on the pathetic number of fluents in Arabic currently stationed at the Baghdad Vatican-Embassy (and shame on me for not noticing this): the 3/3 proficiency level is virtually useless—both because it is not advanced enough for technical or legal matters, and it of a sort not actually […]

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